Kiel Week final day glory

The Kiel Week medal race was once again the crowning highlight at the close of racing for the Olympic classes.

Philipp Buhl (Sonthofen) took revenge for the previous year, finishing first in the last race and thus managed to slip in front of Simon Grotelueschen (Kiel) overall. With his victory in Hyeres (France), this is his second time winning a World Cup race series this year.

The 470 class was dominated by the German teams Ferdinand Gerz/Patrick Follmann (Munich) and Annika Bochmann/Elisabeth Panuschka (Berlin/Uerdingen), and Tobias Schadewaldt/Hannes Baumann (Kiel) defending their title from the previous year in the 49er. Denniss Karpak from Estonia became first in the Finn and in the paralympic class, 2.4mr absolute favorite Damien Seguin from France, took the title. In the Laser Radial, Tatiana Drozdovskaya from Belarus was just in front of Franziska Goltz (Kiel) by only millimeters.

Stating highest recognition, title-holder Simon Grotelueschen congratulated his successor to the throne, Philipp Buhl, right after crossing the finishing line. Still on the water, Grotelueschen took off the yellow jersey for the leader, he had been wearing when going into the final, and gave it to his competitor. With fist-on-fist they congratulated themselves for the German double success. 'I am very happy to be able to win this year, after just having missed the victory last year', said Buhl.

Tobias Schadewaldt/Hannes Baumann successfully defended the title in the 49er.

The 470 final was not that spectacular however. Ferdinand Gerz/Patrick Follmann had a good start, had the fleet under control and were concentrating on their direct competitors Magnus Masilge/Moritz Klingenberg (Potsdam). With the third place, Gerz/Patrick Follmann are the overall winners. Not too many international competitors attending was not a big issue for Gerz. 'It just feels great, because Kiel Week is just Kiel Week.'

For DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner, four victories for the Germans was a major success: 'We are very satisfied. It is much fun, and we are hoping for more. And the young teams will grant four more interesting years for us.' Chief organiser Jobst Richter had a split resumé for the event: 'We had a fantastic finish, where even five kiters could demonstrate, how their class events could look like in the future. But we were pretty disappointed about the low entry numbers for the Olympic classes, especially that the surfers dropped out completely.'